One of the thigns I had planned for this weekend...

OK, my Grisly lathe that I bought used came without a spinner on the tailstock wheel. The seller just couldn't find it, so I decided to make one this weekend. I bought the parts shown here at HD. The are all stainless steel. The wood is a piece of 1' dowel I had lying around.



Then I lost the parts. OK, no big deal, I can make the spinner, and I hadn't lost the screw. (I'd guessed 5/16 as the correct size, and it was not only correct, the wheel was threaded for 5/16.)

So I set the dowel up on the lathe



and shaped it to something like I needed. Then I touched the skew to the end of the dowel to put a little curve on the back, and it exploded. Back to step 1.

Steps two and three went OK, and I took off a nice enough looking spinner a bit shorter than I really wanted, but serviceable. I took it with me when I went to see a friend, and somehow lost it on the way home! Typical.

So this afternoon I started over with the dowel on the lathe, and made a small pilot hole in the centre_



And inserted the big long 5/16 dril for the core hole



And drove it all the way home!



Then I got busy with the skew



And skipping a few finishing steps, it's attached and working. Just by way of bragging, after I finished with the skew I only needed a bit of 220 grit to make it nice.



Now, there's five minutes you'll never get back!

nice little fix, though I'm surprised it turned out to be 5/16" vs. metric. Looks good and I'm sure it's a big improvement.

Always nice to fix something up. What's the rainbow thingy on your chuck?

You sure had to work hard for this one, Roger. Let's hope there's smooth sailing from now on.

The rainbow thingie is a scrunchy. Girls use them to tie up their long hair. Turners use them to show where the spinning chuck jaws are to keep from painfully knocking their hands. The bonus is that they are available in many colors - whatever grabs your attention.

Looks good, Roger. That new handle will be very useful.

I hadn't seen the scrunchy trick to see where the chuck is before. I just look for the spinning silver metal thingy and try to keep my hands from touching it. Never takes me me more than three or four times to zero it in, lol.

Darren Wright said:

nice little fix, though I'm surprised it turned out to be 5/16" vs. metric. Looks good and I'm sure it's a big improvement.

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It is an American lathe, so Imperial sizes. The scrunchy is from LV; they call it a cuff. I figured it will provide some protection if I should bump a knuckle against the chuck, and it looks kinda cool.

Cool fix Roger...great being able to make your own stuff!

It took me a minute to figure out what you were calling a spinner...

Good fix to the hand wheel... I've added wood handles to both of my lathes... the little 1014 had a tiny little silver handle sticking out on its hand wheel that didn't turn and you couldn't get any leverage from, so I replaced with a bolt and longer wood handled, then decided the big lathe would work better with the same fix... then I broke the factory handled that holds the tool rest in the banjo, so just added a dowel to the head of a hex bolt that would fit and that's my handle to hold in the tool rest. All the lock handles were too short for good leverage, so I added handles on them as well.... wish I could say it was my idea, but my friend here locally that turns with me occasionally added fancy ambrosia maple handles to all his lath handles... even sanded them really smooth and finished them with poly.... I didn't get so ornate with mine, I had some hickory laying about and used that, sanded relatively smooth and it was good to go.

Chuck Ellis said:

It took me a minute to figure out what you were calling a spinner...

Good fix to the hand wheel... I've added wood handles to both of my lathes... I didn't get so ornate with mine, I had some hickory laying about and used that, sanded relatively smooth and it was good to go.

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I didn't have a knock out bar for my lathe, either, so I took a piece of metal rod that fit and made a nice cherry knob for it. One time, the drive centre got stuck so hard in the socket that I had to whack it real hard with a hammer, and broke the knob clean in half. For now, I just use the bar naked.

I have had to make some replacement parts now and then for some of my tools. It's actually easier to order the part from the company, but not near as much fun. I prefer the fun to the easy.

Dave Hoskins said:

I have had to make some replacement parts now and then for some of my tools. It's actually easier to order the part from the company, but not near as much fun. I prefer the fun to the easy.

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And in this case, faster and cheaper.

Roger Tulk said:

.... I just use the bar naked.

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Must be the haggis

Ted Calver said:

Must be the haggis

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Och, aye! And the Drambuie.

Good deal on the handles you have made. I slipped a piece of pvc pipe over my original tail stock lever. It worked fine until the extra leverage I had broke the tightening thingie. (Gads. That sounds just like something my mother would have said.)

I will shoot some pics including a pic of the wide rubber bands I have been using at the chuck.

The two pics of the PVC with red handles are what I used in the past mainly to add leverage to tighten the tail stock.

Now I use a home made lock to prevent the tail stock from sliding and I can use very much less pressure on the lathe lever. I adjust my tail stock location, tighten the lathe lever a normal amount and then slide my home made "lock" block against the tail stock. The two levers (one on the lathe and the one I made) lock the tail stock in position much better than one heck of a lot of pressure on the lathe lever alone.

My thought on the rubber bands on the chuck were A) Because the band goes all of the way around the chuck it is much more visible than the jaws and B) If I were to stick a knuckle into the moving jaws the rubber band would keep it from going down into the space between jaws. However, I think the scrunchies will do the same thing and do it better. I am going to try them

Enjoy,
JimB

I like the rubber band idea, Jim, and I will have to find one I can use to cover the parts of the chuck that are not covered by the cuff. I like your supplementary tailstock lock, too. If not being able to lock mine, I have a solution.

I always get a bit of a start when I see your name, as it's the same as my Member of Provincial Parliament, who I write to a lot.